DSHS to Pay $900,000 to Settle Abuse Claims at Western State Hospital

The state Department of Social and Health Services has agreed to pay $900,000 to the estate of a 74-year-old woman who allegedly was neglected and abused as a patient at Western State Hospital.

The lawsuit, which was officially settled Friday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, gives this account of Struthers’ time at Western State:

She broke her arm, her hip, suffered a head injury and had various bruises and cuts from falls and assaults by other patients.

The hospital didn’t diagnose and treat her congestive heart failure until her family “objected to the lack of care and medical attention she had been receiving.”

She also had an abnormal mammogram and subsequent biopsy and mastectomy, after which she experienced “untimely medical attention, lack of wound care and lack of assistance with personal hygiene.”

Additionally, Western State put her in restraints, and “failed to treat Ms. Struthers with basic human dignity and denied her assistance with simple daily hygiene.”

She was also “given inappropriate medications” and “sustained drug overdoses,” the lawsuit says. (The Olympian, November 13, 2018)
--

According to a CBS News report "Washington state psych hospital is "like going into hell" on July 6, 2018 "Dr. Joseph Wainer wrote an editorial in a local newspaper and statement for a court claiming "a systemic culture of retaliation, discrimination and bullying." He was put under investigation and told to leave the hospital. Dr. Jay Jawad said he objected to a management decision to discharge his patients and faced investigation and loss of his clinical responsibilities. Wainer and Jawad were later told that the investigations were closed with no findings. They have sued the hospital and the health department claiming retaliation." 

"Dr. Michael Quayle sued the hospital claiming he faced a hostile work environment after reporting expired and improperly stored meat. A jury awarded him about $550,000 in December 2016."
Nursing supervisor Paul Vilja filed a complaint last December after a man who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the deaths of multiple people was moved from a secure ward into one with limited security.

"I said you are endangering my patients and he's a risk for escape," Vilja told the AP.
The health department agreed with Vilja's concerns, but he was moved to the medical records department within a week. He couldn't work with patients for six months but was recently told he can move back to the ward. Vilja has filed a whistleblower complaint.
--

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.